Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason: ‘We will only ever reform for an event like Live 8′

Former Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has said the band will only ever play together again for a major global event.

The sticksman backed up Roger Waters’ comments earlier this year that he had “no wish” to work with the band again despite the fact the remaining members all played together for Waters’ ‘The Wall Live’ tour in May. The performance was the band’s first since they performed at Live 8 six years ago, although between those events keyboard player Rick Wright died, in 2008.

Mason said it is unlikely the band will ever play together again unless it is a similar global event to Live 8. “There are two elements to it, really,” he said. “One is how Roger and Dave actually felt about working with each other, and whether there was some advantage in it that they would get something from it or achieve something they can’t on their own.

“And the other thing would be wanting to do something that could be a real force for change, a grander version of Live 8 driven by someone even more major than Bob Geldof – someone who could say, ‘Look, we could put this event on and it would transform the Middle East peace process.'”

The drummer also said he had regrets over late member Syd Barrett and he wishes the band had done more to help him with his reported use of psychedelic drugs. “Looking back on it, we didn’t know any better,” he told Jam.canoe.ca. “We should have just cut him free at the point when he didn’t really want to be in a pop star band. It still might not have saved him. There still might have been a big drug problem or a psychosis.”

Barrett left the band in 1968 and became a recluse after a short-lived solo career. He died in 2006 aged 60 from pancreatic cancer.

All 14 of Pink Floyd‘s studio albums have been remastered and repackaged for a new re-issue campaign which begins today (September 26). The band marked the occasion by re-enacting the artwork for their 1976 album ‘Animals’, by flying a pig over Battersea Power Station.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.